al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minhajuhu fi Tawil Balaghat al-Quran

al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minhajuhu fi Tawil Balaghat al-Quran (Imam al-Biqaʿi and His Methodology in Interpreting the Rhetoric of the Quran) is a scholarly monograph by Mahmud Tawfiq Muhammad Saad (d. 1446 AH) examining the life and Quranic rhetorical hermeneutics of the ninth-century AH scholar Burhan al-Din al-Biqai (d. 885 AH) al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…+1.

Background and Purpose

The work was authored by Saad, who served as a professor and department head of rhetoric and literary criticism at Al-Azhar University in Shibin al-Kom al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…. The study developed out of the author’s long engagement with al-Biqaʿi's manuscript heritage spanning nearly a quarter of a century, including his preparation of a doctoral dissertation based on a manuscript copy of al-Biqaʿi's treatise Masaid al-Nazar preserved at the Egyptian National Library al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…+1. Saad aimed to present al-Biqaʿi's intellectual biography and analyze his distinctive interpretive approach to the inimitability and structural coherence (tanāsub) of the Quran, regarding him as a major ninth-century reformer in the understanding of the Quranic text al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…. The book's first edition was published in 1424 AH by Maktabat Wahba in Cairo al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha….

Contents and Structure

The book is organized into two main parts:

• Part One: al-Biqaʿi's Endeavor in Seeking and Teaching Knowledge (Jihāduhu fī ṭalab al-ʿilm wa-taʿlīmih): This part explores al-Biqaʿi's biography, his intellectual formation, and his scholarly production al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…. It includes an analytical survey of more than sixty works and treatises authored by al-Biqaʿi, alongside a dedicated discussion of treatises falsely attributed to him al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…+1.
• Part Two: His Methodology in Interpreting the Rhetoric of the Quran (Minhāj taʾwīlihi balāghat al-Qurʾān al-Karīm): This part forms the core theoretical and applied study of al-Biqaʿi's rhetorical exegesis, particularly in his monumental commentary Nazm al-Durar and his methodological treatise Masaid al-Nazar al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…+1. It opens with an introduction defining the concept and levels of structural correlation (tanāsub) in al-Biqaʿi's thought, followed by two extensive chapters al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…+1:
  • Chapter One focuses on inter-surah correlativity (tanāsub al-suwar), analyzing the grand objective of the Quran, the thematic progression and elevation across surahs, the connection between the opening of each surah and the end of its predecessor, and the conceptual circularity linking the conclusion of the Quran to its opening al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…+1.
  • Chapter Two examines the internal architecture of the individual surah (bināʾ al-sūrah). It analyzes how al-Biqaʿi deduces the central unifying intent (maqṣūd) of each chapter, the relationship between a surah's name and its theme, the contextual interpretation of the Basmalah, introductory rhetorical mastery (barāʿat al-istihlāl), the loop-like closure connecting a surah's ending to its opening (radd al-maqṭaʿ ʿalā al-maṭlaʿ), the bonding of verses within thematic units (maʿāqid), word order in Quranic narratives, sequential and syntactic sentence structure, rhetorical variation of meanings, the rhetorical orientation of variant readings (qirāʾāt), word-level semantics, and the stylistic function of verse cadences (fawāṣil) al-Imam al-Biqai wa Minha…+1.